Have you ever been thinking about something, and thought about it, and thought about it and thought about it and it bugged you until it was almost comfortable being bugged by it?

Yeah, that was this post about the Ventrue.  Now, I have to admit I have had devious reasons.  I have an idea of sorts about the history of the Ventrue that fascinates me, a complex scheme for a small bloodline in ancient Italy to rise to status as a great clan and I was going to drop nuggets of it, a trail of blood if you will, here and build it up.  A major part of this was that secondary level of power at blood potency 7, a power of divination among the Ventrue.

So, what is the problem you ask?  Several.  The first is that I write this very casually with a very demanding job and a three very demanding children.  I have to be able to write quickly.  And I wanted a very particular feel of subtle effect to this power which turned out to be at odds with such a potent level of power.  Additionally, the idea I had for the potency 7 power for the Daeva turned out to be complicated for a different reason - it has proved difficult to disect mechanically while still being tasteful.  And the Nosferatu, well frankly their level potency four power has been hard to select in large part because they have gotten the short stick as bloodlines go.

So, a quick change of plans.  I will eventually present everything I discussed but for now I’ll get out the baseline changes and free myself up to also do some other posts that have been on my mind.

Warning: this post is in three parts: 1) Review (brief) 2) Thoughts about Bloodlines 3) Preview of the next five posts.

I’ve finished Ancient Mysteries and Ancient Bloodlines and while split into two books for a number of reasons (economic and logistic I’m sure) these books will be seen as one work by many and for decent reason.  They are certainly paired as their titles would indicate.

I was recently looking at my old copy of Guide to the Camarilla and it reminded me of how far the physical quality of the newer WW books has come though less stylized over all which I miss a bit at times.  I did like the photographs of the relics in Ancient Mysteries which was a nice twist.  The writing was strong but the hooks in Ancient Mysteries could have been stronger.

Reading Ancient Bloodlines made me think about a couple of things.  One, the sheer proliferation of bloodlines.  This now makes the fourth book of nothing but bloodlines (Hidden, Legendary, Chosen and Ancient) as well as them being a staple of all five covenant and clan books.  What bothers me about this is one the idea that players can become overwhelmed by the sheer number of options and the clear need to make them manageable for a given campaign.  Several folks on the message boards have parralleled this to the prestige class arms race of D&D 3rd edition though I think the analogy would have some unfair points of comparison.  I’ll be outlining guidelines for bloodlines for Khallam at a future date for any Khallam based campaigns.

Ancient Bloodlines also made me kind of sad.  The definition of Ancient in the VtR is virtually modern by my definition.  Many of those bloodlines came into existence with in the last two or three hundred years which in the nWoD … well, that long discussion of how VtR creates a difference sense of the scale of time is pretty obvious for the more astute reader and beyond the scope of my comments here.  Suffice it to say that the ‘new’ torpor system makes dates of a thousand years ago virtually unknowable now (unless you’re Zagreus or another of his ilk).  In contrast in VtM there was a real sense of ancient days being open.  Now, there is good and bad.  For the tool kit approach this means that its up to players to explore, its more mysterious, and its more balanced but it also is less accessible and isn’t that part of what is cool about vampires?  Or am I just a history nerd that wants to be able to peer back the mists of history?  I want vampires to be able to be walking history and I want ancients to walk the earth from three thousand years ago.

While there are certainly tools in the Ancients books the flavor still isn’t there.  I will return to this at a future point.  For now, let’s jump ahead to my contribution inspired by Ancient Mysteries and Ancient Bloodlines.  I will call it Ancient Powers and it will be broken into five posts: Ancient Powers of the Ventrue, Ancient Powers of the Gangrel, Ancient Powers of the Daeva, Ancient Powers of the Nosferatu and Ancient Powers of the Mekhet (though not necessarily in that order).

In each one I will take a published bloodline with a special discipline and destroy it, regulating the bloodline to a non-mystical status and taking their special discipline and making it a clan discipline that is only learnable by those of blood potency 4 and above though only limited by their blood potency once they can learn it.  Similarly if torpor reduces their blood potency they can continue to advance the power only once they reach blood potency 4 again though they have any ranks in it one of their new blood potency would have.  I call these Elder Disciplines.

For example, lets say Bob has Blood Potency 4 and is clan Jones and his Elder Discipline is Bowling.  He can learn Bowling up to 5 ranks.  Once he reaches Blood Potency 6 he can learn 6 ranks of Bowling and so on.  Eventaully Bob reaches Blood Potency 7 but has never learned Bowling beyond its 4th rank.  If Bob goes into torpor and reduces to Blood Potency 2 he will awaken with Bowling at 4 but can not learn the fifth rank until he reaches Blood Potency 4 again.

The purpose of these is to build upon clan identity which I think has been diluted by bloodlines a bit and by building upon the central themes.  As a quick aside, and this is written without counting them, doesn’t it seem that the other clan disciplines are nearly common through bloodlines of other clans compared to Nightmare?  Anway….

Then I will list something for Blood Potency 7.  These are the ancient powers and aren’t just additional disciplines but secrets that each clan keeps tightly hidden.  Indeed, often individuals rediscover them as their blood thickens and they keep it secret not even knowing that the power is shared by the blood and not unique.  And they didn’t become elders by being unable to keep secrets.

I’m going to try to post these with some frequency.  Once a day?  It might be hard, there will be some meat in these but I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve been a bad blogger.  I really need to get back in the habit of regular writing.  As most writers can tell you, and you, and you, there is a sort of rhythm to regular writing, a pattern of thought and habit that leads into discipline.  I need to recover this.

I will begin tomorrow by posting a rewritten and improved version of the Highlander Killer, perhaps with content integrated (well, referenced anyway) from Slasher and Armory Reloaded.

I just got a bunch of WW books in, both new stuff and new to me stuff.  I’ll post reviews starting with Immortal Sinners very soon.  However, I want to remind my kind readers of a basic rule of my rules.  I don’t really care if a book is good.  A viable review has to set the criteria for a review and quality is not a factor in mine.  It may well reflect on what I think of a book but my criteria are based on how useful the book will be for fleshing out my game world and how much I enjoy reading it.

Wastelands

I want you to pick up the Promethean book and go read the Wasteland section if you’re not already familiar with it.  If memory serves the page is roughly 170, perhaps 172.  Got it or remember it?  Good.  Now, understand that any content involving Prometheans developed for Khallam will ignore these rules.

Now, ignoring book rules is actually unusual for me.  Its not unusual for me to add content but for some odd reason I like using books published as is.  I think its because I like for the books to be neutral ground.  I like for the books to be a point of common understanding and with the groups I play with we’re often so tight on time we don’t have the luxury of sharing debates over how we want to rewrite the rules.  So, my way of fixing things is usually to add options for characters (I’m almost universally the Storyteller).  So, I spent a great deal of time figuring out feng shui rules for mitigating this effect, then cobbling together a rewrite before I gave up.  One hour for setting down a track-able marker?  Instigating the first stage of wasteland in one day?  Finally, I realized that it was better to just chuck the whole thing.

It isn’t that I’m unsympathetic to the idea.  I love Promethean and think its a marvelous book.  I think the theme they are developing with the wasteland rules is a good one and appropriate.  However, I feel that the results of it are too constraining, require too much book keeping and the core theme is already developed well with disquiet.  True, the specific theme is a little different (rejection by nature rather than man) but at its core the theme that the world rejects the unnatural is already accomplished.  And perhaps on some level I disagree with it.  Aren’t the Prometheans alive?  Don’t they have that divine spark?  Isn’t this telling them that despite saying “I am” that they aren’t or at least shouldn’t be in this world?  I agree with the nomadic idea of the Prometheans but I can still see them as hermits and living in tune with nature.  I can see some spreading of disquiet in the natural world but not in the extremes listed and not in such as tight time frame.  And even that they should have ways to tone down to a bare minimum if a Promethean learned the alchemical secrets of shielding his Azoth.  Perhaps the disquiet powers should also limit the Wasteland spreading.  Its too much.  The wasteland is not only beating a dead thematic horse but punishing the player.  Prometheans often seek humanity and this requires some interaction.  Sure, they’re underdogs.  Its the World of Darkness, not World of Sunshine after all.  But give them a fighting chance.  Eventually the tipping point turns the under dog into a victim and that’s never fun to play.  Well, usually not.  Never say never.

Imagine a Promethean character beyond a short game series into long term play.  Other characters had better be pretty mobile.  And I’m not talking about a biker gang.  One hour at a  Waffle Hut and you’re setting down a mystic marker for enemies to track you.  One day at a bike rally and you’re playing havoc with everyone’s helmet’s blue tooth phone system if you’re a Frankenstein.  This kind of mobility is insane.  And the effect?  The World of Darkness is to me the real world with a horrific nightmare side.  With the square mileage that effects the wasteland spread Al-Qaeda would love to recruit a Frankenstein.  At Azoth 3 he would effect 28 square miles and change.  Manhattan is only 23 square miles.  In other words at a low level wasteland he could screw up all of the electronics of Manhattan (i.e. Wall Street) with bleed over to spare into other parts of NYC.  Sure, you could argue that some mage cabal would stop it.  Or werewolves.  Or whatever.  But even a few days could have disastrous economic effects and that kind of logic - that there isn’t some natural counter effect, that it relies entirely on intervention doesn’t sit well with me.  Though it might be a good adventure idea.  CIA mages track down Al-Qaeda Promethean slavers.  Pure gold, baby.

So, in summary.  Wasteland : no.  Wasteland as spreading disquiet, as its spreads out in the radius of effect: sure.  In fact, I encourage that idea but its nebulous, unfocused, it provides the idea of the Promethean as damaging his psychic environment and people would resist it better (double composure?) without direct contact with the Promethean.  The spirit world will be real pretty.  *cough*  At the later levels some of the physical effects might occur which draw the interest of mages and werewolves but the direct route leads to spirits.  This keeps Prometheans mysterious and rarely encountered.  I also think that supernatural entities should get extra resistance (Blood Potency / Gnosis / whatever) while animals could learn to over come it in time if they form a bond.

I like Prometheans and I like the toolbox of the new World of Darkness.  I want them to be beleaguered, even tragic figures, but not victims.

The Dragon and the Cross

The typical Ordo Dracul institution is secular, not hostile to spiritualism or faith but so focused on their own research that moralistic concerns are seen as distracting at best and destructive at worst.  In Khallam this is not true.  While the Lancea Sanctum and Invictus often claim to be the first and second estates of the realm, the Ordo Dracul of Khallam claim a greater right to the title of being the First Estate.  Like the Lancea Sanctum in many domains, the Ordo Dracul partners with the Invictus who take the role of the second estate.  As the first estate the Ordo Dracul claims a religious function in the lives of the cities Kindred and propose a moral agenda, which is very unusual for the Order of the Dragon.  However, Khallamites claim that this is the rightful chore of the Order, created by Dracula to mirror the mortal Order of the Dragon as champions of a holy cause and in God’s name defend the faithful.  Smugly, the Order also claims that like the medieval church they don’t restrict themselves to religious scholarship.

In most realms the Sanctified see Dragons as dangerous while the Order simply finds the Lance distasteful and backwards.  In Khallam the hostility is palatable but there are only a few Sanctified.  The result is they get to feel persecuted and the only Dragons who have to pay attention are the hounds who scrutinize their actions for violations of the city’s strict interpretation of the Masquerade.  Every Sanctified who has been found guilty of violating the Masquerade has been put to death, usually by diablerie.  The handful that remain still hold mass and try to convert who they can but also walk a very straight and narrow line.  It is no secret that Istavan despises the Lancea Sanctum and while he allows them to exist, it is only so long as they play by his rules.

Khallam Dragons believe that scholarship, science and mysticism should be informed by a study of ethics, philosophy and even morality.  The Mekhet monk Istavan is largely responsible for this.
Istavan has no cathedral and while he is fond of talking he never preaches but thanks to his philosophy a new kindred religion has formed in Khallam centered around the Ordo Dracul.  There are no organized draconic churches as Istavan claims this is a folly - there is one god for both man and beast and Kindred are both.  Still, the Order seems to condone the older and more ritualistic faiths - Catholicism, Episcopalian and Greek Orthodox.  While the foundation of the Order is strictly in the Christian faith Istavan has said that all kindred of good faith must look for common threads to understand their mission just as men must understand.  He is fond of saying that “God has five billion veils, and each veil has a name.  Let us not obsess over the veil he faces us with but rip it from his visage and then learn how to rip the next from him.”  He has reached out to the other Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Islam and left the door open to others.  It should be noted that as accommodating as he is Istavan is not a theosophist but merely believes in the olive branch, tolerance and understanding as befits a scholar.  The Lance is an exception.

So far Istavan has been unwilling to codify an actual text of faith or establish an organization to it.  This unwillingness to be a papal figure has instead made him a saint to many and given him more influence than ecclesiastical power would.  Although taken out of its original context Istavan has reluctantly allowed to have the Kindred beliefs he espouses called pleromaism, indicating the totality of what a kindred should aspire to being and the power it represents.  Istavan however insists that he is merely a christian monk and that this set of beliefs is in no way a separate religion but more of helpful guidelines for interpreting the bible for vampires.  His acceptance of the term is a concession to needing to describe a belief shared by others rather than associate it unrelentingly as “what Istavan believes.”

Pleromaism shares the Sanctified belief that kindred are cursed by God.  However, the implications of that curse, the interpretation, is as different as one could imagine from the conclusions of the Lancea Sanctum.  This does not mean that the Order is filled with religious zealots.  Indeed, their focus on scholarship means that they are more successful with making true believers of neonates than elders but throughout the Order it has put faith and philosophy into consideration in the Great Work.  Some say that Istavan or Byron have received prophecy or have been visited by angels but this is rumor.  What is known is the tenets of how the Order sees the Kindred condition in the light of faith and how it has shaped Khallam.

Both Pleromasits and the Lance believe that God has cursed the Kindred, that they have been chosen, that they must fully master their power and that they must explore their nature as Kindred.  With all of these similarities it would seem that a strong common ground between the faiths but the differences are profound.  Istavan does not believe that Kindred are damned.  They have free will and can damn themselves but he believes that the curse is much like the trials of Job and those who can endure will be stronger for it and receive God’s vision.  Essentially, he has proposed that this is the true Golconda, a time when a Kindred’s nature is twisted, perhaps by a visitation from a divine being, an angel, and just as they were make more than man by becoming Kindred they will become more than Kindred.  But beware, there are false Golcondas along the way.  Some of these should be explored but only so far as they inform the greater progress of the Great Work.

And so comes into the faith the foundation of the Order’s reason to exist - the Great Work.  Istavan believes that Dracula created the Order to correct a failure, the failure of Kindred to expunge their own weaknesses.  This is widely accepted as it is the foundation of the coils.  However, Istavan claims that you must look to Dracula’s choice to name this the Order of the Dragon, a vampiric mirroring of the human order.  The Order must champion God’s cause and defend the faithful, vampiric, human or otherwise for all is God’s creation though some may walk away from Him.  As a result the Kindred of Khallam show a much greater concern with feeling a sense of community with humans, with stressing the importance of being human, than the Lance or Order does in other places.  Indeed, Istavan claims that to deny one’s humanity is a cardinal sin, they were once humans and humans were made above beasts and to reject humanity is to reject God’s gift.  The Lance’s obsession with being a predator is to Istavan the same failure of the Belialites dressed in ritual sacraments to make themselves feel better.  Indeed, were it not for this affront to God, mockery of him, Istavan could probably find common ground.  In fact he has been known to say that at least the Belialites are honest in their depredations.

In the great chain of existence there exists beasts (instinctive knowledge), man (rational knowledge) and angels (intuitive knowledge) and finally outside existence and unobtainable God who has omniscience.  Istavan claims that the Kindred condition allows for the marriage of man and beast with the barest glimmerings of even greater awareness.  As a Kindred one should exalt the Man, be rational and learn while at the same time explore the beast but never let it rule for to do so is to abandon free will and leave open dangerous doors to one’s soul.  Then, explore the powers of the Kindred to see the edges of intuitive knowledge.  The result will one day being risen to join the angelic orders as warriors of God.  Although, this is largely metaphoric the militaristic edge to the philosophy has created a new faction in Khallam in well, the Dragons of the Last Dawn.  The Coils are the means to this, the means to expunge weakness and expand one’s nature.  Some say they will literally become creatures of spirit, while others say that they are due to be an entirely different category of angelic creature that is both flesh and spirit and earth bound.  Some say that ancient Kindred now sometimes already reach the outer rings of this power but that none have reached the inner circle, the vampiric equivalent of the arch angels who could walk in the heart of the sun itself.

But like all Dragons, they debate these points, these interpretations a great deal.  And not all are true believes just as not all Dragons are true scholars.  But still the culture influences even where they don’t believe and most accept that they must be more than human rather than simply inhuman.

The Arcesilia

The Arcesilia is named for Acesilaus, the Greek philosopher and student of Plato who founded the Middle Academy.  Famous for being a skeptic and doubting the capability of the senses to determine truth, his name was borrowed by Phillip Byron for the institution in Khallam dedicated to questioning assumptions about the Kindred condition and the larger universe, when relevant.  Tragically, this meaning and name are lost on many of the undead citizens of Khallam, most of whom simply call it the Blood College.

Created in the wake of the 1943 New Crown Siege, the Arcesilia was only possible due to the united stance of the Kindred afterward.  Founded by Phillip Byron its first group gathered in 1944 with a full 30 members inducted by 1962.  It is a powerful local institution socially and has the reputation of being where power is traded in favors even more than in Elysium as its a concentration of those with power.  Ironically, it has the effect of magnifying the attention at Elysium on those few who have influence but are not members of the Arcesilia.  It is important to understand that the Great Work of the Ordo Dracul is not the task of the Arcesilia.  The Arcesilia was founded to explore the extent of the kindred condition, abilities and limitations.  Given a natural preference for the arcane as well as obscure, research tends to lean to mystic avenues of research rather than psychology or physiology, though these are certainly respected as well.

Because the express purpose of the Arcesilia is not the Great Work, it seeks to be inclusive and include those from other covenants and obscure traditions.  As a result it also provides a special opportunity for scholars to exchange knowledge, usually in a quid pro quo scenario where each hopes to gain at least as much as they give.  Academic and mystic knowledge grant great status in Khallam, especially if it bears on a better understanding of the kindred and even more so if it advances the Great Work.  Indeed, many non-dragons hope that by joining the Arcesilia they may gain some status and learn rudimentary coils.  While this certainly happens for a few, it is also true that those who embrace the coils will not progress far without joining the Dragons.  Certainly, there will expectations on the part of some that they will after this initial trust.  The reverse is not true though.  Many Dragons hope to learn obscure disciplines and magics from others and are expected to bring that knowledge back to the Great Work.

At any given time there are only 30 members of the Arcesilia.  In common parlance it is known as the Arc by the more respectful and the Blood College by the less so.  The 30 members are called degrees and when they gather they stand in a circle with thirty points.  Six members stand at the “cardinal” points.  These include the three stewards of Khallam and three others they have elected to serve unending sentences on the governing body.  These six are sometimes called Cardinals within the Arcesilia but always referred to as Masters or Fellows when speaking with outsiders.  These six each select two people who serve as Journeymen or Residents.  These 12 positions serve until dismissed.  Those 12 each select 1 person who serves as a Guest or Apprentice.  These positions are typically filled for a period of one to three years before the person is asked to step down and be replaced.

The structure is built to be much like an academic guild and provide the greatest influence from the top down, rewarding those who have ascended to power, providing motivation for ascendancy and resources for the most powerful to continue their work.  Obviously the Cardinals hold the most power since they never leave the organization and can directly select two members each and thus indirectly select two more.  In theory these selections serve a research purpose with each Cardinal selecting those whose research supports their own and each Journeyman selecting one who supports either their own individual research or collaborative.  Indeed, collaboration is expected throughout the Ascesilia though quite a bit of fighting for prestige takes place.  A Journeyman who selects a Guest who supports their Master will find favor but their own original research can sometimes bring even greater prestige to their Master.  Indeed, in the last forty years some some Journeymen have gained enough status that they are essentially permanent fixtures and highly unlikely to ever be replaced.  There is discussion since the 1990s that the membership might be becoming static and should expand its membership on a meritocratic basis.

In theory there is no shame in a Resident being asked to leave but in truth people wonder, if they were really any good why didn’t they produce the results for their Master that would continue that line of research?  That is hard to answer but certainly there are often exceptions to that logic.  Fortunately for Apprentices there is little expectation and even leaving within a single year is generally held as acceptable and there is no shame.  There is prestige to be gained from behind asked to stay longer though, especially if one’s Journeyman or Master is held in particular esteem.  Cliques form around certain areas of research and interest that inform these social statuses.  So far no Masters have ever been replaced and Residents have only been replaced a dozen or so times.

Even the most unsocial of researchers will find gaining status among the Dragons lubricated by membership and even most Guests have rank 1 or 2 though not all do.  This grants additional authority when trying to find rooms or gain resources from the covenant.  So, what of those few, and they are few, who have substantial status in the Ordo Dracul but aren’t members of the Acresilia?  After all in a city with nearly one hundred fifty order members the Arcesilia has non-members, insightful neonates being given a chance and even a few mostly useless people that seem to sit in their positions like undead statues.  The simple fact is that status is status and those few with great status outside the Arcesilia are assumed to hold that status for good reason.  Some are seen as eccentric scholars who don’t work well with others.  Some have that status for totally non-academic reasons such as highly ranked sworn members of the Ordo Dracul.  Others are mostly isolated for good reasons such as the Kogain.

Aside from prestige and having the ear of influence what does membership grant someone?  The simple answer is potential access through fellowship to rare levels of scholarship and mystic knowledge.  Additionally, there are benefits when special situations arise.  It is true that anyone who wants to do a special project, such as an incident of following the dragon’s tail, that might violate the law can ask for exemption from the Stewards under some guidance.  However, it is far more likely to be granted to those with low status if they are members of the Arcesilia.  Aside from any inherent bias the Arcesilia gives even low status members a rare chance to talk up their ideas and gain approval before formally approaching the Stewards, especially if they have little to give in bribes.  Indeed, more than one elder’s name has been attached to an ambitious project to gain favor just as elder professor’s may be attached to papers.  Additionally, although the spoils of war go first to the Sworn of the Axe, Byron as the first of the sworn grants many of those privileges to the Arcesilia if they hold mystical value.  This attracted many of the initial members.  The Masters then decide who gains these things including who has the will, the fortitude and character to absorb such knowledge safely and who is mostly like to make the most use of it and contribute back.  Almost without exception these things are given to Journeymen or Masters of the Ordo Dracul.  Rarely, such stolen knowledge has been gifted to a very junior member but never one outside the order.  This can include the right of diablerie if someone is captured and thus the ability to learn rare disciplines.

Of the six masters Byron is the best known but least known for his scholarship.  He is seen largely as s dilettante, mastering coils that allow ones to interact better with humanity.  Some dismissively see this as very like a Daeva but its utility is clear.  Furthermore his appointees often look into area of physics and behavioral studies that few others do.  Istavan’s appointees often hear little from him and have a great deal of independence but all share his strong moral character.  Istavan rarely speaks about his own mystical studies but it is known that he is fascinated by Golconda, the nature of God’s creations as a whole and his opposition to the Lancea Sanctum.  Only the other masters know of his great heresy.  Tegen is a master of blood magic, appoints scientests who study the genetics of blood, he tracks bloodlines and studies feng shui and law.  In short he studies the blood’s connection to history and its intersection with the earth and how these are codified into contract and law.  Many in Khallam think of Tegen as a bureacrat but those of the Arcesilia know him as an aggressivle scholar as well.  Rounding out the masters include the Gangrel master of the coil of blood that replaced a previous masters, a mekhet blood sorcerer who has long studied obscure forms of ghouls and the former diablerist who wants to recreate the Camarilla.

There is a theory, that I just made up, that anything can be broken down into 10 short distinct pieces of information. I call this my d10 theory.  I got the number by rolling a ten sided die.  I still see new folks slowly coming over to Vampire the Requiem and the nWoD even though its hardly a new system anymore and I can’t blame them - I was a hard sell and slow convert myself.  Still, I love the new system and here’s a primer for those coming over to VtR from VtM.

1.  Title.  The title underlies a difference.  Vampire: The Masquerade often was very much about hiding, hiding from the world and maintaining the masquerade.  Did it have to be and was it always?  No, and Requiem builds on those strengths expanding the themes of the game into the nightly unlives of kindred as a whole.  And the challenge of the tradition of the masquerade is still a part of that.  If anything it makes the potential for playing a monster more monstrous but allows you to ignore it if you wanted to as well.

2. Malkavians got a slap dash treatement in the main book but got their proper treatement in the Ventrue Clanbook.

3. The 13(ish) old clans are gone.  The new format is a 5×5 that gives 5 clans (very broad ideas) and 5 major social structures so there are 25 basic permutations for characters.

4. Bloodlines further expand on the built in mechanisms to expand characters.

5. Don’t forget personal motivation and personalities but Nature and Demeanor are gone from the character sheet replaced by Virtue and Vice.  I still use Nature and Demeanor in addition to Virtue and Vice though simply because I think they’re good aids even though they have no mechanical effect.

6. The 5 major political factions are not all encompassing.  There are others, there are shadow cults, there are factional fights among the factions and with the vampires somewhat isolated city to city local variations arise.

7. You’ll need to buy at the least the core World of Darkness book and Vampire the Requiem now as core rules are split off.

8. Even though there are clans called Nosferatu, Ventrue, and Gangrel they are the clans you remember and more.  The Daeva are far more than the Toreador were and the Mekhet are not new, they were there as an an umbrella idea unnamed over many oWoD bloodlines.  I enjoy finding nWoD homes for a lot of old stuff.

9. You’ll want to look outside the Vampire game line for a lot of great stuff to use in Vampire games.  The World of Darkness is a baseline product line especially is good for more than just mortals.

10.  Throw out the assumption that every Werewolf hates your guts.  A given one might hate you for being a vampire, or just likes your Italian loafers.  Or wants to bum a smoke.  Or will ignore you.  The other game lines have changed a lot too.